I was recently telling Ella: "Someday, you and Maiya are going to be best friends, aren't you?" She responded, "Mommy! We already ARE best friends!"
Friday, July 31, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Skagway Severe Weather Warning
The Weather Channel's website (that Jared frequents religiously) just issued this warning for upcoming severe weather:
______________________________
...UNSEASONABLY HOT AND DRY WEATHER EXPECTED NEXT WEEK...
A DEVELOPING STRONG HIGH PRESSURE AREA ALOFT THIS WEEKEND WILL
RESULT IN CLEARING SKIES AND RAPIDLY WARMING TEMPERATURES...BEGINNING SUNDAY OVER THE SOUTHERN PANHANDLE AND REACHING THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL PANHANDLE BY TUESDAY. DAYTIME HIGH TEMPERATURES ARE LIKELY TO BE 15 TO 25 DEGREES ABOVE AVERAGE ESPECIALLY OVER THE INNER CHANNELS BY WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY...WITH MOST INNER CHANNEL AREAS REACHING THE 80S. SOME AREAS MAY GET TO OR EXCEED 90 DEGREES...WITH THE HYDER AREA THE MOST LIKELY PLACE FOR THAT TO OCCUR.
THE WELL ABOVE AVERAGE TEMPERATURES WILL CAUSE INCREASED GLACIER
MELT AND THIS WILL CAUSE RIVERS AND STREAMS WITH GLACIAL RUNOFF TO RISE SLOWLY NEXT WEEK. FIRE DANGER WILL INCREASE ALSO DUE TO THE HOT AND DRY CONDITIONS
___________________________________
IN OTHER WORDS....
WARNING:
UNUSUALLY GOOD WEATHER IS BACK!!
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Fire Alarm
In the middle of our busy tourist day, our Fire Alarms went off! I quickly exited to the courtyard, and found the other 6 business owners (with connected buildings/alarm systems) looking at each other, wondering who had the fire. No one did! Within minutes, the Skagway Fire Department showed up, and we quickly determined that a small child had pulled the lever in MY back store! Oops!!! Well, how's that for adding variety to my day?
Monday, July 13, 2009
Playing in Alaska
SUMMER. UGH. Gotta love it, gotta hate it.
I often feel like each day is a race. It is a race to wake up on time, get the kids dressed, fed, and off to Daycare. It is a rush to make it through the day, get emails answered, humor tourists, get items priced, displayed, and sold, etc. Then it is a rush to clean the bathrooms in the courtyard (an extra job I picked up to make some extra money), pick up the kids from daycare, rush them home so I can cook dinner, give them a bath, and then finally put them into bed. THEN...I breathe again...until I pass out, and repeat it all the next day.
In an effort to not let the store control our lives (which, admittedly, it DOES), we have been trying to do a larger variety of activities lately. This has helped break up that monotony. We are officially halfway through our summer, and I'm hoping I can stay optimistic and positive.
The other day we left work early and drove to Dyea (the next mountain valley over), and took with us a "picnic" dinner. It was very, very windy, so we ended up having the picnic in the back of our van. Still an awesome view, and great company :-)
Who can resist these baby blues?
A next day was the 4th of July, and we took the WHOLE DAY OFF!! WOHOOO!!! Maiya walked with her buddy, Sierra, in the kiddie parade (before the larger parade), and Ella rode her bike that we decorated at the lat minute. She was very excited!
The temperature was soaring...we were in the 80's, which is a VERY hot day in Alaska!
Here's a photo of Ella on her bike with her friend, Lexi, who is living in Skagway for the summer. We are trying to convince her wonderful parents that they ought to choose Skagway over Ketchikan for their permanent destination. We are loosing the battle...but I'd like to believe it is only because Lexi's Nana & Papa live in Ketchikan.
Ella and Maiya watching the adult parade. Here come the Canadian Mounties...
And sled dog team...
When Ella saw this character, she announced to me: "Mommy, that guy is an 'American'" Yes, yes he is, sweetie.
A fourth of July in Skagway is unlike any other. We don't do things the right way, or the wrong way--we just do them the SKAG-WAY. Here is our non-traditional "dump tank":
In case you can't tell, this event done by the local Fire Station features a skeleton sitting on a toilet. When someone hits the target (on the left hand side), the toilet flushes ice-cold glacier water onto the person seated below. Oh, Skagway.
We took the girls to the kiddie carnival, and let them wipe us out of $8.00. Yeah, it was a crazy splurge for us, but we've gotta live sometime...right?!
Afterwards, we returned home for a nap (intended for Maiya, but enjoyed by all) , and later set up the kid's swimming pool in our front yard! (I must note that we did not break this out even once last summer, since it was a dreadfully cold and dreary summer)
And we even took them to the park later. I loooove this photo...
To keep on our mean-streak of having fun, we played hooky yesterday, and didn't show up for work. Instead we slept in, and went on a few hikes with the girls.
We also decided (at the very last possible moment) to jump on a dog mushing tour. We took a bus over to Dyea, and the girls especially enjoyed the dog sled ride:
Maiya is in love with any moving animal, but Ella is a little more cautious.
Perhaps our girls have a future in dog mushing?
Let's hope not...running the Iditarod typically costs a musher $30,000...
I often feel like each day is a race. It is a race to wake up on time, get the kids dressed, fed, and off to Daycare. It is a rush to make it through the day, get emails answered, humor tourists, get items priced, displayed, and sold, etc. Then it is a rush to clean the bathrooms in the courtyard (an extra job I picked up to make some extra money), pick up the kids from daycare, rush them home so I can cook dinner, give them a bath, and then finally put them into bed. THEN...I breathe again...until I pass out, and repeat it all the next day.
In an effort to not let the store control our lives (which, admittedly, it DOES), we have been trying to do a larger variety of activities lately. This has helped break up that monotony. We are officially halfway through our summer, and I'm hoping I can stay optimistic and positive.
The other day we left work early and drove to Dyea (the next mountain valley over), and took with us a "picnic" dinner. It was very, very windy, so we ended up having the picnic in the back of our van. Still an awesome view, and great company :-)
Who can resist these baby blues?
A next day was the 4th of July, and we took the WHOLE DAY OFF!! WOHOOO!!! Maiya walked with her buddy, Sierra, in the kiddie parade (before the larger parade), and Ella rode her bike that we decorated at the lat minute. She was very excited!The temperature was soaring...we were in the 80's, which is a VERY hot day in Alaska!
Here's a photo of Ella on her bike with her friend, Lexi, who is living in Skagway for the summer. We are trying to convince her wonderful parents that they ought to choose Skagway over Ketchikan for their permanent destination. We are loosing the battle...but I'd like to believe it is only because Lexi's Nana & Papa live in Ketchikan.
Ella and Maiya watching the adult parade. Here come the Canadian Mounties...
And sled dog team...
When Ella saw this character, she announced to me: "Mommy, that guy is an 'American'" Yes, yes he is, sweetie.
A fourth of July in Skagway is unlike any other. We don't do things the right way, or the wrong way--we just do them the SKAG-WAY. Here is our non-traditional "dump tank":
In case you can't tell, this event done by the local Fire Station features a skeleton sitting on a toilet. When someone hits the target (on the left hand side), the toilet flushes ice-cold glacier water onto the person seated below. Oh, Skagway.We took the girls to the kiddie carnival, and let them wipe us out of $8.00. Yeah, it was a crazy splurge for us, but we've gotta live sometime...right?!
Afterwards, we returned home for a nap (intended for Maiya, but enjoyed by all) , and later set up the kid's swimming pool in our front yard! (I must note that we did not break this out even once last summer, since it was a dreadfully cold and dreary summer)
And we even took them to the park later. I loooove this photo...
To keep on our mean-streak of having fun, we played hooky yesterday, and didn't show up for work. Instead we slept in, and went on a few hikes with the girls.
We also decided (at the very last possible moment) to jump on a dog mushing tour. We took a bus over to Dyea, and the girls especially enjoyed the dog sled ride:
Maiya is in love with any moving animal, but Ella is a little more cautious.
Perhaps our girls have a future in dog mushing?
Let's hope not...running the Iditarod typically costs a musher $30,000...Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Meet Sierra
The teachers at "Little Dippers" in Skagway are a fantastic group of girls! Maiya's favorite is Sierra, a high-school age girl who just adores Maiya over all of the other children. Whenever we arrive, Maiya is undoubtedly in her arms. In fact, she likes Maiya so much, that she shared a sweet story with me today, and I wanted to record it so that I never forget it.
She said that she was playing with Maiya alone in the baby room, when suddenly she was overwhelmed with love for Maiya, and she actually started bawling! Sierra explained to me that she has always had a dream of moving to a foreign country, and as she was looking in a child's book with a map of the world, she suddenly had the thought, "But if I did that, then I wouldn't ever see Maiya again!" That thought moved her to tears. She said she picked up Maiya and gave her a big hug, and just held her for awhile. I suppose she now has an inkling of what it is like to love a child like a parent.
Maiya walked in the 4th of July Kiddie Parade with Sierra:
She said that she was playing with Maiya alone in the baby room, when suddenly she was overwhelmed with love for Maiya, and she actually started bawling! Sierra explained to me that she has always had a dream of moving to a foreign country, and as she was looking in a child's book with a map of the world, she suddenly had the thought, "But if I did that, then I wouldn't ever see Maiya again!" That thought moved her to tears. She said she picked up Maiya and gave her a big hug, and just held her for awhile. I suppose she now has an inkling of what it is like to love a child like a parent.
Maiya walked in the 4th of July Kiddie Parade with Sierra:
Maiya is lucky to have this best friend this summer at Dippers!
P.S. More later on the 4th of July weekend in Skagway (AWESOME!)...Meanwhile...Mindy, a gal from the Skagway church branch, made an appearance in our parade, impersonating none other than...
Monday, July 6, 2009
Similarities?
A friend lent us some old videos several years ago, so that Ella would have something to distract her at the store while we were working.
Ella has been through the stash time and time again, but only recently discovered her new favorite movie. It has never interested her in past years, but suddenly she loves it!
And how could she not? The movie Madeline, named after the main character, follows the life of this fiesty, but sweet girl. And who does she remind you of?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)